Weibe/Western Epistemic Tradition, 9. Modernity, Postmodernity, and the Study of Religion

The fourteenth-century Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the discovery of a new epistemic tradition in European thought, and the formation of the secular state made the development of science, and its application to the study of human culture including religion, possible. The idea of a scientific study of religion emerged in the nineteenth century and was brought to fruition in the twentieth. It has not yet, however, been firmly established in modern research universities in Europe, Britain, America, or elsewhere; the idea is still very much a matter of scholarly debate.